Section 3: Expenditure relating to social economy enterprises
This section empowers the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to incur expenditure for any purpose which the Department considers will benefit the development of the social economy in Northern Ireland. Expenditure may also be incurred for the provision of advice and information, educational materials or policy advice to the Department about the social economy.
It is intended that section 3 be used to provide statutory powers to provide funding to the Social Economy Network (NI) Ltd or any other body to represent the interests, and facilitate the development, of social economy enterprises in Northern Ireland. The powers in section 3 are, however, wide enough to enable the Department to incur expenditure for other activities considered, in the future, to be of benefit to the development of the social economy in Northern Ireland or for the other purposes set out in this section.